Post navigation

Hanukkah

The holiday of Chanukah revolves in large part around a miracle related to olive oil. In Biblical and Talmudic times, olive oil, used for light, heat, fuel and food, was a very important resource for energy. The limitations on this resource often posed problems in ancient times — just as modern limits on availability of energy resources pose a problem today. The traditional Jewish relationship to olive oil can teach us much about how we can relate to energy today.

Celebrate with us by saving energy with Canfei Nesharim this Chanukah.

The miracle of the Chanuka lights is well-known. After the Hasmonian Jews defeated the Syrian Greeks, they sought to rededicate the Temple in Jerusalem and light the Menorah. However, only one small vessel of oil was found, with enough oil to burn for a single day. Yet the Menorah miraculously burned for eight days. What is less well-known is how the miracle came to be. This drash will explore one teaching on the miracle of the oil, and a lesson it can offer to us in our modern times…Read more

The famous and oft-told miracle of one jug of oil lasting eight times its expected yield is certainly quite the miraculous happening. The idea of the utilization of a fuel resource for eight-fold of its expected output would be miraculous today, as well. Would it only be that our gasoline and other fuel supplies would yield such abundance! Even five-fold or three-fold would be tremendously helpful to our ability to utilize the limited and – in these times – expensive fuel resources…Read more